The Future is Ow

We are back and in the company of another illustrious guest on this week's episode. Tech critic, writer and gadfly to the Silicon Valley set - it's none other than Ryan McRae Arnold! We get into the usual rogue's gallery of panoptic horrors that confront the digital citizen in the year of our lord 2022 in this first part of a two parter with Ryan. So ease in to your precog goo bath and get ready to glimpse beyond the event horizon and ponder the known unknowns that lurk there.

Follow Ryan on twitter @ryanmcraearnold and thanks also as always to our music man Dalton Corr and Espresso Tempo.

We try, try, and try again in spite of technical difficulties to talk about the shady Israeli spyware firm NSO and an update on the ID.me situation at the top of the show. Then a noticeably more happy Mack & Jonah talk about 5G and the foibles of its rollout around our nations skyways and byways.

We have a very special guest episode featuring a very special guest, Jonah's brother Jake - architect, artist, officionado of digital culture and man about town. We start with some classic grist for the FiO mill in the form of Jeff Bezo's plans to build a giant hitachi in outerspace, the now definitive unreality of Havana Syndrome, and the infiltration of a fan-favorite government agency by perfidious private enterprise. Then we make Jake answer a bunch of stupid questions about buildings, islands, and why they're all sort of like that now.

The Future Is Ow returns after a holiday-hiatus with another classic 'sode detailing the myriad ways that a few savvy innovators are disrupting the getting old and dying space. What's more, McDonald's is elbowing into the NFT market with an unfortunately racist virtually McRib. Then we move onto the sordid story of a spook-for-hire firm stepping on the wrong toes and living to regret it, plus a return to old uncle Elon and a look at his recent triumphant coronation as TIME's Man of the Year. FiO is back baby !

The boys return from a long period of monastic seclusion having thought much, and learned nothing. We do our semi-regular El Salvador Check-Up, pop back stateside to check in with another recently crowned crypto-curious executive, then discuss the finer points of the Hanky Code, the banal evil of Astroworld and teletherapy, and finally move on to something called "Constitution DAO" and "Web3'' which Mack has to explain to me like I'm five. Sorry for the hiatus folks, but we're back now and we're never gonna hurt you like that again.

We scry the future once more by way of more racist AI bots and the racist mirror they hold up to our racist online society. Also: the plague of robo-callers and it's effect on our brave hikers and woodsmen; cheapskates and skinflints stiffing our actually brave and ever-swelling class of precarious gig delivery drivers. Then it's onto the biggest story of two weeks ago: The Metaverse.

Mack and Jones are back in one room and the mojo is undeniable: first we check in on the latest bastion to fall to the inexorable creep of facial recognition: Scottish lunchrooms. Then, we delve into the hair-rising possibility that the veil of anonymity long enjoyed by some of our nation's most vital and, indeed, virile heroes, sperm donors, may soon be torn away. Then it's on to another type of anonymous shooter as we talk the rise of 'ghost guns' and 3D-printing assisted criminality in general.

The boys execute the first-ever remote episode as Jonah calls in from an undisclosed location on what sounds like a tin can on a string but we promise was an actual microphone. What follows is a full English breakfast of vintage FiO material including but not limited to: what the hell is happening with Germany and clairvoyant animals, the latest in twee panopticon home-goods, and the CIA's plan to assassinate Julian Assange. For dessert, we get into an argument about the media and whether the New York Times is good or bad. Enjoy!

The guys storm the swampy alluvial delta of Playa Girón like the brave exiles of yesteryear to check up on more Havana Syndrome news including the proof of bipartisanship's stubborn survival in the recently passed HAVANA Act. Then we talk the newest wearable tech that is sure to delight rockabillies and peeping tom's everywhere courtesy of Facebook and Ray-Ban's. After that there's a technical woopsie doopsie, but then it's onto the main course : lithium mining, batteries, and the future of burning to a crisp inside your autonomous vehicle.

The boys don their podcaster-approved maternity pants and #1 Fan Foam Fingers to hang loose and talk a little sports trivia before delving into the stories of the day : Bitcoin Bursts Bumblingly onto Scene in San Salvador! Palo Alto Plutocrats Plumb Possible Pathways to Immortality! Celebrity Spears Successfully Seeks Self-Determination!

Also : we go into the deranged Texas abortion ban and snitch-line as well as an update on Apple's ongoing efforts to solve the insidious 'CSAM' question on their platforms.